Kochi Muziris Biennale 2014: Part One

What a way to begin a year! Last Sunday I made my pilgrimage to the altar of art that is the Kochi- Muziris Biennale 2014, the second edition of art extravaganza that is bigger and better than the last one. As usual, since our spouses are totally averse to the idea of tramping around looking at art and since kids would only be a distraction, it was another girls' day out for my dear friend Tessa and me. This time I worked my camera to bits: a whopping 400+ photos as opposed to the 100+ last time. This was because when I came back home last time and started to blog, I found that I could not remember the names of even half a dozen creators of the works that I loved the best. So this time, I took pictures of all the artist names and descriptions regardless of whether their work impressed me or not. At least I have a better record now!

The tickets to the Biennale are available at the second entrance of the Aspinwall venue. For adults it is Rs100/person. The first exhibit this time around was a video installation by Charles and Ray Eames (of the Eames chair fame). It was a short film called Powers of Ten and for all that it was made in 1977, it was no less wonderful an experience. Let me just say that it puts us humans in place! Really timeless as true art should be.

The next thing that really caught my attention was a series of 90 charcoal drawings of Madhusudanan, called the Logic of Disappearance. Here is just one of them:

Lenin, Stalin, Marx and a pig are recurring motifs in the drawings and they are disturbing and breathtaking in their artistry at the same time.

Yang Zhenzhong's video installation 922 Rice Corns reminded me of the old Sesame Street videos that teaches numbers to preschoolers. It shows two or three chickens pecking up grains of rice while someone counts the rice corns in the background in Chinese and the a few running counters show the number already pecked. Although the blurb said that it was a way to show the relentless and mindless consumption tendencies of humans, I just felt that it was a good way to learn to count to 922 in Chinese. But may be I do not have the artistic temperament!

I loved Santhamani Muddayya's Backbone that dominated the courtyard of Aspinwall House. Don't you?

It's raw and primordial and still playful, somehow. These are the feelings it evoked in me and I took pleasure in passing between the "bones".

Parvathi Nayar's drawings on wooden panels were also very good. An example:

Mark Formanek's Standard Time was a video installation that was every bit thrilling as a real movie. 

It shows a group of workers changing some numbers (another throwback to Sesame Street?), but then you realize: the numbers are a time display, it is the same time on your watch, the workers are hurrying to change the time within each minute!!! And then you feel anxious about whether they will accomplish the necessary changes within the minute and spend an agonizing time watching (in my case) the second hand of your watch! Really what better a way to show the tyranny of time??? I heaved a huge sigh of relief as I came out of that room, I can tell you!

Lavanya Mani's Traveller's Tales was another of my favorites:

Actually the architects of Aspinwall House should be mentioned among the artists. Who cannot but admire this?

Here I will skip over quite a few artists to get to my next favorite installation, a roomful of towering black, seemingly dripping outlines on white by Hew Locke called Sea Power:

It was only as I went up closer that I found out how it was done!

Yes, they are made with thick cord and strings of bead, attached with a glue gun to the walls. A man after my own heart, is Hew Locke!!!

Sahej Rahai had a huge hall full of sculptures made from clay and found objects, most of them were from the school of the macabre:

 

But the one not to miss is the video installation  at one end of this hall - that of an old sculpture that looks quite still and innocent until you see small furtive movements. The stone chest moves in an attempt to breathe, then it tries to stretch its back! By the time its damaged face moved as though desperately trying to speak, I fled!!! Brrr!!!

The one piece that truly surprised and confounded me was Xu Bing's Background Story: Endless Xishan Mountain Scenery. The placement of this artwork aids this confusion. Tessa who had already seen this piece hung back on purpose to let me have my first glance:

What do you see?  A frame of fluorescent tubes, a lot of torn paper, some dried vegetation, a few twigs, huh? I shook my head derisively at who ever had thought of this as "art" and went around where I stood and gaaaaaaaped.....

Tessa quite enjoyed my open-mouthed expression. All the junk at the back is artfully arranged so that the shadow is projected on to the canvas to create this wonderful painting. To look at a little detail... this is the view from behind...

and this is what it looks like from the front:

The original of this huge piece of art is displayed in a glass case nearby:

It was tough getting the huge piece in one shot:

So on that note of wonder, let me put an end to this episode of the Biennale. The exhibition goes on to the end of March (the last date is the 29th, I believe). If you can, do go and see these wonders for yourself! Enjoy!

Chalo Gavi!

Gavi... the magic name that shot to fame after the movie Ordinary came out two years ago. After the "Gavi girl" enumerated the attractions of her home town, everyone wanted to go there. But little did everyone know that the Gavi in the movie is not the real Gavi. The name of the town was chosen for its catchy quality and only one shot was filmed in Gavi!!!

Although we did know this, we still wanted to visit. So where is the real Gavi? It is in the heart of the Periyar Tiger Reserve, which is spread across 305sq.km. of Idukki and Pathanamthitta districts. At one end of this reserve is the famous tourist spot Thekkady. Gavi lies in the interior part of the reserve, in Pathanamthitta district.

How to get there: On the Vandiperiyar-Kumily route, take a right just before the Connemara tea factory and proceed straight to the check post at Vallakkadavu.

There are three ways to travel through the reserve forest:

1. Catch a KSRTC bus that goes this way to Pathanamthitta. This is the most economical way to see the forest - but do note that you are not allowed to alight anywhere except at the bus stop near Gavi unless you plan to travel through to Pathanamthitta. If you plan to get back to Vallakkadavu, you will have to wait till the return trip passes through Gavi again.

2. At Vandiperiyar, get passes to take your own vehicle or a hired jeep into the forest. The cost is Rs. 1000 per head + jeep fare+ vehicle admission fees.Only a limited number is allowed each day, so one has to be bright and early to get this permission. Please note that although you can stop to take pictures of wildlife on the way, you are not supposed to get down from the vehicle. This is called a "package trip" and those who chose this way of sightseeing can use the tourist facilities at Gavi - more about that coming up.

3. The third way, the one we took, is the Forest Department's Jungle Safari bus. You get tickets (275 per person) + an entry fee of Rs.33 per person. The trips are at 6:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 pm. (Rates and times are subject to change!)

We didn't know about options one and two, so we prepared to go the third route. Accordingly we rose

early on a really brisk morning and left our comfy bed and breakfast in Kuttikkaanam before sunrise. The fog played hide and seek with us, making the sinuous turns a bit difficult to negotiate, but we were in no hurry as we had made a dry run the previous day and were sure about the route and the time we would take (when going in the daytime, allow some extra time for snarly traffic in Vandiperiyar). 

We reached with an hour to spare and warmed ourselves with scalding tea from the shop near the check post. The tickets are given out at 6 am. The trip will start only if there are a minimum of at least 8 passengers. The driver and guide were both forest officers.

At 6:30, we started on our journey through the Periyar Tiger Reserve. We wound our way through the forest at a leisurely pace, our guides keeping a sharp lookout for any wildlife that they could show us.  As we plunged into the interior, the forest resolved itself into grasslands on one side and steep ravines and tall trees on the other. Wildlife sighting was a lottery. Although the preserve contains tigers, elephants etc. they are not always to be seen. We were lucky enough to catch some small fry like some forest fowl, some simians, a wild buffalo and a family of squirrels 

At some places the forest resembled a well-cared for estate rather than a forest: the fire line being cleared by laborers, the various points at which forest offices could be found and the smooth road probably contributed to that illusion. There were a lot of eucalyptus trees to be found as well. Then the forest officers explained that the area was under the ownership of a paper company before being declared a part of reserve forest and they had been responsible for the destruction of indigenous trees to plant eucalyptus for their industry. Once it was declared to be a forest, no trees could be cut, so the eucalyptus stayed.

But there were also areas of thick, impenetrable vegetation with the elephants' favorite bamboo varieties in abundance. And sure enough, we came across signs that an elephant herd had passed across the road at several points because they had strewn the paths with bits of bamboo and dung. To tell you the truth, I was actually happier that we saw only the signs and not the herd itself - I hate being terrorized on an empty stomach (especially after this incident). Besides, we'd had our fill of the pachyderm family at Konni the previous day - more on that in another post!

The road wound gently up hill till all of a sudden, the vegetation changed and we saw just grass-covered hills all around. We stopped here and our guides informed us that this was the spot where the "accident" scene of Ordinary - the only scene in actual Gavi - was shot:

And then the verdant hills around: 

Soon we came to the center of Gavi, which has a small dam, a tiny park with paddle boats and  a few resort cottages.  The park and restaurant are only for the "package" customers. A few glimpses:

The park:

Gavi has a little piece of interesting history behind it. During the 1970s, a large group of Srilankan Tamil refugees were given land in Gavi and they started cultivating cardamom. But with the inclusion of Gavi in the Reserve forest, they could no longer use pesticides or chemical fertilizers - as a result of which the farming became unprofitable. They worked out a plan with the government to allow most of their farmland to be turned back into forest while they got exclusive rights to provide tourist facilities in Gavi - so the park, cottages and restaurant are their main source of revenue now. 

We were dropped at the dam to walk around and take pictures. Since we were not "package" customers, we walked past the park and restaurant and climbed aboard our bus once again to travel a few hundred meters to our last point...

That is the Gavi post office and a Kudumbashree restaurant. Despite the modest appearance, we had some lovely soft idlis for breakfast and got back into our bus for the return trip.

I must mention this, the forest guards who came with us on the trip -  Vijeesh and Aby - were both very well-informed and helpful. DH and I pestered them constantly with our questions, but they never once lost patience and answered our questions in detail. They are not loquacious like tourist guides, but we could plainly see that they love their job and take it seriously. During the trip, they were also keeping an eye on the trippers who came with their own vehicles, alerting other officers on the way if the tourists were showing signs of lingering, getting out or planning to stop and have a liquor party. 

Here they are with our kiddos (Vijeesh on the left and Aby on the right) after we got back at 9:30.

We lingered a while longer to use the restrooms and to see the tiny museum in the check post vicinity. 

All in all, it was a very refreshing trip and we got to fill our senses with the wonders of the forest and our minds with some choice bits of information. Our guides did say that more sightings of the wild denizens of the jungle were to be had after a dry spell, when they would congregate at their watering holes near the road. This rainy season having been plentiful and extensive, the animals had plenty of water sources in the interiors and didn't need to come down to where the humans hurtle by in smelly, roaring contraptions. We also saw a few members of one of the three tribes of the forest: the Malampandarams - a nomadic tribe that makes their living by collecting honey and other forest products.

It was really worth sacrificing a couple of hours of vacation sleep on a cold December morning to visit Gavi. Hope you get a chance to go too! And keep a lookout for the tigers that could sometimes cross your path!!!

It's that time of the year!!!

As 2014 is fast running out of days and 2015 is inevitably drawing near, it's been chaos at Karthi. Lots of year-end activities to be accomplished before we can usher in the New Year. New folders opened, old folders put away... Cupboards purged... Trash burned... Exams dealt with... The inevitable colds and fevers tided over...

And here we are on Xmas eve. This is where we take a few days off the internet and social media. It's a time for regrouping, time to spend with the family, time to spend some time in solitude with our own souls. A time for celebration and at the same time, a time to fall back a little in order to spring forth with more energy.

This has been a wonderful year at Karthi - a year of discovery of purpose, creative fun, some good stress - yes,  a little stress is beneficial - you might have heard the story of the tiny shark left in containers of fish to keep them alive till the deep-water fishermen reach the shore? 

So au revoir, my dear readers, till we meet again in the New Year. There will be times in the coming year too when it seems all life is a long hustle...

When it will seem that everyone is out to get you...

Or you feel completely out of your element...

Some days will bring utter chaos...

And you may feel that life is running away from you...

There might be days when you decide discretion is the better part of valor...

And days in which you have no energy left to take it any more...

But hey, that's when the fun begins! After that good rest, you get up and wade in again...

ride the waves any way you can...

and be the lord of your domain once again...

So for the coming new year, I wish all of you plenty of joy and enough good stress and challenges to make you feel alive. Have fun and adventure in 2015! And even in the midst of all the chaos surrounding you, may you have the ability to touch the immutable core of peace that is always inside you...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

(All in the course of a quiet morning at Varkala beach.)

Selfishness is GOOD...

... and please read on to the end before you chew me out!!!

"Don't be selfish," must have been the adjuration I have heard the most in my childhood apart from the constant instructions on how "good girls" have to behave. My Mom still enjoys telling me how I hated sharing my toys with my friends. She especially remembers how my closest chaddi-buddy used to complain, "Kala, when you come to my home, I let you play with all my toys. But you let me play with only this one-eyed teddy bear." (Well, she didn't know the honor I was conferring on her by allowing her to play with my personal confidant, nightmare-keeper-away and best friend, still!)

But this "selfishness" adjuration when accompanied by the dreaded finger wag and aimed at a little girl means much more than the simple meaning of the word. It means she has to be obedient, to never talk back, to be always gentle and humble and to be ladylike in all circumstances. 

Having had the time and opportunity to look around and see for myself how this works, especially in the case of a couple of women who have taken this adjuration to heart and put it to work in their daily lives, I will tell you how I came to the resolution above.

One of the women is one I have grown up with. Having been tomboyish, loud and contrary while growing up, I was constantly compared unfavorably with her and ordered to be "more like her". She was and still is the Beauty of my family, the best at domestic arts and the most lady-like of all the girls. It speaks volumes about my love for her and my restraint that she grew up to womanhood without being strangled at my hands. And having been a contemporary, I also knew firsthand that her meekness and obedience came from the goodness and piety of her heart and that she was by no means weak inside. I could not but admire her innate goodness.

I thought she was very happy till recently when she started talking to me about how her meek nature had always been taken advantage of by her spouse's family and how she had been treated as a drudge all along. The breaking point came when there was a tussle in her own family regarding property and she was accused by her siblings of insinuating herself into a better position with her father by being "all very subservient and charming and oily" with the cantankerous old man. She was shocked to the core of her being when she found out that this was how she was being perceived.

The good thing is, after the shock, she no longer feels the need to be subservient and obliging all the time. She continues to be true to her essence, but no one gets away with taking advantage of her any more. It did turn her a little bitter, but she has learnt her lesson. The people around her are astonished at "how the worm has turned" and are not quite pleased. But now she does not care that much for them.

The other lady belongs to my mother's generation, but essentially she is also the same. Quite like my relative, she too is a very strong and opinionated woman - the only thing is, she had hidden this part of her so long that she became very good at passive aggressiveness. It amazed me once to observe her having to lie to her mother-in-law about having to go to the hospital when all she wanted to do was to go shopping. She went to great lengths to conceal any activity (none of which were criminal or reprehensible) that would make her "an object of censure" (oh horror of horrors!). She burst into tears at any hint of remonstrance for anything from others. If she accidentally broke something, instead of owning up like an adult would do, she hid the evidence and protested her innocence like a scared 6-year-old - to people young enough to be her kids!

Now, in her old age, she herself is suspicious of others' motives all the time. When her daughter-in-law tells her that she needs to go to the hospital, she checks with her son whether he is sure that she is going there and tells me that she suspects that her daughter-in-law has just gone to meet her friends or have fun. And she is bitter, bitterer than the greenest bitter gourd. Her favorite topic of conversation is how everyone (no exceptions) in her life have only exploited, ruled over and hurt her in various ways - which does not make for good conversation. The bitterness is so pervasive that she cannot appreciate all the good in life. It shows in her face - her perpetual expression while at rest is that of a person who has just downed a dose of the bitterest kashaayam. In all the years I have seen her, I don't remember her producing more than a single halfhearted "heh-heh" at the funniest of jokes (Ladies do not guffaw). 

Both these women are not foolish, silly or evil. They are both pious, good and generous people and I admire them both. They do have another thing in common - they both don't have good friends. My relative became a housewife right after graduation and has not kept in touch with her old friends except very occasionally. But now she opens up to me and has made a few friends of her own and is getting to be more sociable. The older lady I spoke of had a good career and is retired. But she does not keep in touch with any of her old colleagues or childhood friends - which I think is an important factor in keeping up a healthy mental attitude.

These are just two cases that I have noted. We have all seen that archetypal Indian mother who has to remind her offspring of the "9 months and painful labor" when she is ignored by them in her dotage. If they don't listen to that, then she enumerates the instances of her "unselfish slaving for their welfare". Well dear friends, I think it is much better to be selfish, assertive and happy to the end of life than be unselfish and end up bitter and complaining. I also think that it is very important to hold all precious friends close to your heart all your life.

Don't you agree?

A first time for everything...

Karthi was a bedlam of activity the whole of November. Why? Because Kala Chaarutha was gearing up for its first ever exhibition stall at a corporate event. The dining table was snowed under with paper clippings, metal findings and the occasional shiny rhinestone. 

 

There were few horizontal surfaces in the house where paper, bead or crochet jewelry were not reposing in various stages of formation. One weekend saw DH wandering disconsolately around with his open laptop in hand until he ended up in front of me. Of course, I cleared up some space for him immediately - but there WAS only just enough space to put down the laptop, not even the space for a coffee cup beside it. 

I also managed to rope in two people to help me. My cousin, to whom I had gifted a beginner's kit for quilling and had taken a class for came with her own wonderful creations to add to my repertoire. And my sis came in to act as cashier. We gathered at Karthi on the day before and were taking care of last minute things till the stroke of midnight! It was fun!

So there we were, on the morning of the 29th, setting out our wares in the grip of equal parts of trepidation and hope - .okay to be honest, 80 parts of trepidation to 20 parts of hope...

The good day had another surprise in store for us - we got "promoted" to a better location quite in the thick of the action and soon we were ensconced there...

Concentrating on the "product" left us little time for "decor" of the stall. I just had enough time in which to whip up a hand-written board for our little stall...

...which seeing our tagline - "All handmade, all with love" was probably more appropriate than a printed flex on a standee! Also, it served  to "mask" our billing station, leaving only the goodies out in plain view - a totally unintended effect, I assure you!

There will be no more pictures of the day, because once the people started coming in, we were too busy to take pictures of the action! And THAT is a good thing. Some came to stare, some to chat, some to try on and discard - but lots of people bought our things - which was pretty awesome an experience.  

At the end of the day, we all sent up prayers of thanks and walked off exhausted, but very happy with a cash box considerably heavier than when it came in the morning!

So far, so good!!! Besides my cousin and sister, I have DH to thank for a lot including making me believe that I could make enough pieces for display, for chivvying me all along and most of all, ignoring the dust bunnies all around Karthi because I had let the housekeeping slide in the last week! I'm still not sure whether my family got enough nutrition in that week, but since they all seem unharmed, I am relieved! 

Which does not mean that everything was perfect. I learned several good lessons in the process ranging from the variety, number and pricing of products to good display techniques. And those lessons can only come from experience - for which I am extremely thankful.

The only casualties of the exhibition are my left forefinger that is STILL sore after continually stretching yarn over the metal hangers (but to good effect because my earring organizers were completely sold out!) and my right arm that ached after all the wire cutting. But hey, what's a little pain in the face of all this joy of accomplishment?

So now on to learning more and making more....!

Movie Review Digest: 9 movies at one go!!!

Due to a family wedding and subsequent activities, it's been a while since we got out to watch a film. But what is Karthi without movies? We decided to watch a few DVDs we have been holding on to for a while now. Here we go.

We do not watch many Hindi movies unless they are recommended to us by friends or family. That is how we got to see the following.

Highway: Wow, a fantastic cinematic experience in all senses of the word! Alia Bhatt was a revelation in this soul-scraping movie of an heiress who gets kidnapped on the eve of her wedding. She accurately portrays the angst of women who have to fear sexual exploitation from absolutely everyone - it's absolutely a miracle how all women do not turn out to be misanthropes! Great watch, definitely recommended. Also a road movie - which is another one of my likes!

Two States: Everyone I talk to either loves or hates Chetan Bhagat. I like a few of his books and would say "meh" to some others. Two States, I definitely liked. The movie adaptation is an almost verbatim copy of the novel except for understandably omitting the not-so-relevant parts. Although Alia would not have been my choice to play Ananya (completely lacks the doe-eyed look), she makes up for it by her peppiness. My picks of the cast are Amrita Singh and Ronit Roy as Krish's (Arjun Kapoor) parents. Great performances! Okay to watch.

Lunch Box: What is it with foodie movies and inducing hunger? Please make sure you have a full tummy before you watch this movie!!! I had just watched a documentary about the dabbawallahs of Mumbai on TLC when this movie came my way. The movie develops through a tiny error made by the dabbahwallas whose error margin is claimed to be one in 6 million (allegedly). But the mistake is savored by the receiver and cook between whom a relation slowly blooms helped on by the aromatic wafts coming from the green-bagged lunch box which is a central character of the movie! Lovely performances by Nimrat Kaur and Irfan Khan. And I had to search and find the recipe for Bhindi fry right after the movie: our younger one who refuses to eat okra was compelled to eat one. He did and thereafter was tough to stop. He said he would give me "hundred out of hundred" for the dish! 

Now to get to the Malayalam movies.

Mosayile Kuthirameenukal: We completed the first half of this movie, then remembered to watch it only after several weeks! But once it was completed, we felt bad for not having watched it earlier! :) By which I mean to say, the first half  is not very remarkable although it has a snappy narrative technique. It also takes an unconscionably long time for Sunny Wayne to be introduced, which to me is a huge flaw! :) But once we got into the second half of the movie shot in Lakshadweep, the movie took on an ethereal, lyrical quality which I think is owing to the exotic location as well. Wow! The music too changes and takes on the rhythm of the waves that lap those golden shores. I could go on and on in this vein - I will end on this note - the second half is a must watch - but you are welcome to watch the first part to be able to understand the second! :) DH has been looking up passage to Lakshadweep after watching the movie!! Hurrah!

Hi, I'm Tony: Watch this only if you have an affinity for I Know What You Did Last Summer. For the genre, it's an ok movie with adequate doses of creepiness, gore and pain. The last two twists were totally predictable. I dislike such movies on principle, but please do not let that prevent you from scaring yourself!

Praise the Lord: Years ago Zachariah penned the delighting little novella of the same name. It was the true  and funny picture of the thought process of a wealthy plantation owner in Pala.  PT Devarajan had the unenviable task of expanding and updating the novella to fit the movie format. He has done a good job, but the fact remains that there is too little matter in the novella to be spread over 2.5 hours. The attempts to inject humor are pathetic. And nowhere does Zachariah say that Samkutty talks in that singsong voice even though his phraseology is kind of preachy. I definitely like the book better. There is something to be said for brevity.

Vegam: "Meh". Resembles Nivin Pauly- Nazriya starrer Neram in several aspects. But nowhere near it. Definitely avoidable.

Avathaaram: Old-fashioned revenge story with the totally cliched murder of honest customs officer part. Of course, Dileep as Madhavan Mahadevan is the brother of the dead officer. In many ways, his character is a continuation of the character Vinod in Anthikkad's Vinodayatra, albeit in a lethal form. Only new things are the extensive use of the mobile phone and apps to apprehend the wrongdoers. Okay, if slightly too gory for my taste.

Ormayundo Ee Mukham?: Finally, one movie we WERE able to watch in a theater. Shouldn't have. I mean, if you have watched "Fifty First Dates" (openly acknowledged in the movie), no point in watching this one. And it's not anywhere as interesting as the original. Added to it is the characters who live in Kerala of some alternative universe - totally disconnected from reality. Humor injections pathetic in this movie too. Watchable only for the Sand art parts - which are truly breathtaking.

From my bookshelf - The Fault in Our Stars

It's been a while since a book moved me so much that I wanted to write about it. What with Kala Chaarutha happening, my reading is limited to what I can snatch at bedtime before I drop off to sleep. Even so, I managed to somehow finish John Green's The Fault in Our Stars in just a couple of sittings. 

I had had my doubts about reading this book despite some rave reviews I've been reading for some time. When the protagonists are both cancer patients, it wouldn't certainly be a happy story, I was sure. And after the mind-numbing shallowness of Stephanie Meyer's vampire series, I was not sure I wanted to try a "teenage" romance again. It was probably the small size of the book and the promise of absolutely no sequels that made me go for it :).

And was I surprised. Yes, the story is unutterably sad. Yes, it is tragic. Yes, it made me cry.  But they were cleansing tears - the good kind. I will not set out the plot here or the points that made me love the book because I hope you will go ahead and read it and feel as moved as I did. Let me just say that I was awed by the quiet bravery that human beings can achieve in the face of the greatest pain.

In many ways it reminded me of another of my all-time favorite love stories: Erich Segal's Love Story. Which of course, is another tragedy. It has the same type of snappy dialogue, the same brevity of expression and the same intensity of feelings, not to mention cancer playing spoilsport. 

All in all, a must-read for people who like love stories and don't mind if they don't have happy endings!